Throughout the entirety of this thesis, it has been approached as a research and
design full-time endeavor. This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in
Strategic Product Design at the International Hellenic University.
Research about the acceptance of prosthetics by amputees has been conducted, to
locate problems that arose due to the lack of design and aesthetics in the prosthetic
parts industry. We are going to analyze why it is important to make prosthetics for
amputees so they can feel more empowered and stop feeling stigmatized by society,
by creating customized 3D printed prosthetic limbs through personalized design. It is
time for them to show the world who they are and use their prosthetics not only for
functionality but as a fashion statement too.
A case study for custom 3D printed hands will be introduced. The research is about
positioning problems, collecting raw data, and using design thinking procedures to
design and create mid- and low-cost 3D printed prosthetic bionic parts with fully
customized designs according to user preferences and aesthetics.
The rapid growth in the 3D printing industry now allows individual designers to
become small-scale manufacturers as well. There are numerous examples of 3D
printed prosthetic parts used on war victims, people in third-world countries but also
to kids that can't afford to buy a prosthetic. So we can see that 3D printed devices
have the potential to impact people's lives. Of course, the 3D printing methods still
have limitations, but as the technology in this field progresses the development of
3D print is rapid so soon there will be a lot of improvements.
This dissertation topic covers a broad range of research and design disciples. Every
aspect of the research was examined in detail and everything was taken into
consideration in the design phase so the outcome would be exactly what the user's
needs were.
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